Improvement in water-wheels



H. B. WEAVER.

Water Wheels.

Patented April 8, 1873.

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HORATIO B. WEAVER, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN WATER-'WHEELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 137,580, dated April 8,1873 application filed March 7, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, H ORATIO B. WEAVER, of Hartford, in Hartford county,State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Water-VVheels, of which the following is a specification, referencebeing Fig. 4. is a view of the wheel and gate in cross-section throughthe plane indicated. by the dotted line 3/ y in Fig. 1.

The wheel is one of that class generally known as turbine, though it maybe set upon a horizontal shaft. It is an outwarddischarge wheel. Thegate is an annular gate upon the outside of the wheel moving with thewheel.

The invention consists in the arrangement or device made use of foropening and closing the gate.

The letter a indicates the shaft, upon which the wheel is fast. b is thebody of the wheel; and c, c, c, &c., the chutes or buckets. The Watercomes in at the top, as indicated by the arrows, and goes out at theside of the wheel. The letter 01 indicates the gate of the wheel,fitting upon the wheel like a case; it has an annular rim, al madeseparate from the body of the gate, fastened to it at the top of thegate, and jutting over the body of the wheel a little to insure that thegate keeps its place upon the wheel. Through the longitudinal center ofthe shaft a runs an inner gate-rod, 0. which gate-rod may movelongitudinally in the shaft a. At the proper point there projects fromone or both, preferably both, sides of this gate-rod a pin, a runningthrough a vertical slot, 6, in the shaft a, and through an oblique slot,f, in the neck 01 which projects from the gate 01 and embraces theshaft. This pin a is seen, in Fig. 1, projecting from but one side ofthe gate-rod; by preference I have it project in the same way from theopposite side of the gate-rod through similar slots in the shaft a andgate-neck d This central gate-rod is extended up so as to project abovethe upper end of the shaft a, where, by means of a grooved collar (suchas I shall describe when I come to Fig. 3) and a fork taking into thegroove of this collar, the gate-rod may be raised or lowered, relativelyto the shaft (0, so far as the play of the pin a in the slot 6 willpermit, at pleasure.

By moving the gate-rod upward, the direction indicated by the arrow, theeffect of the pin a upon the slot f is to rotate the gate a shortdistance upon the wheel, and by moving the gate-rod down again the gateis rotated back again. The upward movement of the gaterod opens thegate, and the downward movement of the rod closes it.

In Fig.1 the gate is represented as opened. The gate has vertical plates01 answering in number to the buckets of the wheel, which, when thegate-rod is pushed down, are rotated or moved so as to close the mouthsof the buckets, and when the gate-rod is moved up these plates uncoverthe mouths of the buckets.

A modification of my device for operating the gate is shown in Fig. 3.In this case there is no inner gate-rod, but the sleeve t between theshaft and the neck d takes its place. This sleeve is made to turn withthe shaft by means of a spline and feather, but it can move length wiseon the shaft i; it has projecting from it the pin or pins M enteringinto oblique slots in the neck 01 the same as in the former case, andthe moving of the sleeve up or down opens or closes the gate, as in theother case. The sleeve i is in this case the gate-rod. On the end of thesleeve, and the same arrangement answers for an inner central gate-rod,is a grooved collar, i By causing a pronged lever or fork to take intothe groove 2' the sleeve may be raised or lowered at pleasure, while thewheel is still or while it is in motion.

I claim as my invention-- The combination of the wheel, the gatearranged to rotate with the wheel, the shaft upon which the wheel isfast, the gate-rod arranged to rotate with the shaft, but free to movelongitudinally, and provided with a pin, (one or more,) or itsequivalent, extending laterally into an oblique slot in the gate-neck,all constructed, arranged, and designed to operate substantially as andfor the purpose set forth.

HORATIO B. WEAVER. Witnesses:

WM. E. SnvroNns,

J can PoLLrTT.

